On Monday, the submarine arrived from Severodvinsk at the NF main naval base Severomorsk. Subs of this project constitute the core of Russia's maritime strategic nuclear force. Soon they will be replaced with Project 955 Borei submarines.

"As a result of repairs and upgrading, lifetime of the sub has become 10 years longer", Serga said.

SSBN Novomoskovsk was laid down at Sevmash shipyard in June 1987. The sub was put afloat on Feb 28, 1990 and commissioned into Soviet Navy on Nov 27, 1990.

According to publicly available sources, those subs are 167-meter long, 12-meter wide, and displace about 12,000 tons. Test depth is 400 meters, cruise submerged speed is up to 24 knots, crew is 140 men. Project 667BDRM submarines are armed with 16 ballistic missiles R-29RMU2 (RSM-54) launched by D9RM system. The project was developed by Rubin Design Bureau (St. Petersburg).

SSBN Novomoskovsk has carried out 7 deployments, 15 patrols, and 14 missile firing drills. Throughout her service, the submarine has covered over 100,000 nautical miles.

During repair and modernization of SSBN Novomoskovsk, about 100 innovations were introduced in order to improve the sub's performance characteristics. Noisiness was reduced while underwater detection capability was significantly improved, as well as survivability and nuclear safety.